Honduran envoy quits over claim of embassy orgy

DIPLOMAT DEBAUCHERY:：Reports say that a friend of Honduras’ ambassador to Colombia threw a party in at the embassy that turned into an orgy with prositutes

AFP, TEGUCIGALPA

Mon, Jan 07, 2013 - Page 7

The Honduran ambassador to Colombia was forced to resign on Saturday after his bodyguard reportedly held a Christmas party with prostitutes at the mission, the Honduran Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

Carlos Rodriguez Andino stepped down after Honduran Minister of Foreign Affairs Arturo Corrales received a report drafted by a special commission appointed to investigate the Dec. 20 incident in Bogota, Colombia.

“In order to safeguard national interests and good relations with the Republic of Colombia, we asked for the ambassador’s irrevocable resignation and Mr Rodriguez stepped down, effective immediately,” the ministry said.

According to Honduran media reports, the ambassador’s bodyguard and close friend, Jorge Mendoza, organized a party at the embassy to celebrate Christmas which turned into a booze-fueled orgy with prostitutes.

Reports said the prostitutes stole embassy computers and cellphones, and defecated on the desks of the ambassador and the commercial attache after they were asked to leave without being paid.

“A scandal in our foreign service is a stain on the country’s name. Diplomatic missions are sacred,” lawmaker Rodolfo Zelaya said.

Colombian police said they are also investigating the incident at the embassy, which is in an upscale Bogota neighborhood.

The police chief for the northern part of Bogota, Jose Baquero, said officers were seeking to question two prostitutes who were taken to the embassy in a vehicle about the party and the alleged theft.

The party began at about 10pm and ended at nearly 5am the next morning, police said.

The US Secret Service was embroiled in a similar scandal involving prostitutes and its agents in April last year in the Colombian city of Cartagena, where US President Barack Obama attended the Summit of the Americas.

More than two dozen Secret Service agents and military personnel, tasked with preparing security for Obama’s visit, were sent home.